In order to implement the requirements of the State Council’s “delegation, regulation and service” reform, further optimize the business environment and promote trade facilitation, the General Administration of Customs decided to carry out the “two-step declaration” reform pilot for imported goods in some customs from August 24, 2019. From January 1, 2020, the General Administration of Customs began to fully promote the “two-step declaration” reform pilot for imported goods.
Import consignees or agents can carry out “two-step declaration” of imported goods through the international trade “single window” (https://www.singlewindow.cn) or the “Internet + Customs” integrated online service platform (http://online.customs.gov.cn), or carry out summary declaration in non-certificate, non-inspection and non-tax-related situations through the “Palm Customs” App.
For domestic consignors and consignees with a credit rating of general credit or above, all goods actually entering the country can adopt the “two-step declaration”.
Promote the “two-step declaration” reform, while retaining the existing declaration mode “one-time declaration”, and enterprises can choose any mode to declare.
The specific process of the “two-step declaration” customs clearance mode is advance transmission of manifest → summary declaration → access inspection/goods pick-up → complete declaration → handling relevant formalities → release.
Under the “two-step declaration” customs clearance mode, enterprises do not need to fill in all declaration items at one time, which can be divided into two steps: summary declaration and complete declaration:
The first step is that the enterprise can pick up the goods with the consent of the customs after the summary declaration;
The second step is that the enterprise completes the complete declaration within the specified time.
1. Summary declaration
When an enterprise declares imported goods to the customs, it must first confirm whether the imported goods are subject to prohibition and restriction control, whether they need to be inspected or quarantined according to law (whether they belong to the goods in the legal inspection catalog and the goods that need to be inspected or quarantined according to laws and regulations), and whether taxes need to be paid.
For taxable goods, enterprises must submit a tax guarantee registration application to the customs tariff functional department directly under the place of registration in advance; the guarantee amount can be used cyclically according to the tax payment situation of the enterprise.
(1) For goods that are not subject to restrictions or are not subject to inspection or quarantine according to law, enterprises only need to declare 9 items. Enterprises that release goods at checkpoints need to confirm the 2 logistics items involved, namely gross weight and container number. For taxable goods, a guarantee registration number that meets the requirements must be selected.
For goods subject to restrictions or are not subject to inspection or quarantine according to law, 2 additional items need to be declared, namely license number/accompanying document code and number, and container commodity item number relationship.
For goods that are subject to inspection or quarantine according to law, 5 additional items need to be declared, namely product qualification (product license/approval/registration), product number (10 digits) + inspection and quarantine name, commodity attributes, use, and container commodity item number relationship.
If the goods are not subject to tax and do not require inspection, they can be picked up; if tax-related goods have submitted tax guarantees and the customs inspection of the goods that need to be inspected has been completed, they can also be picked up.
(2) For those that are prohibited or restricted, two additional items need to be declared, namely the license number/accompanying certificate code and the accompanying certificate number, and the relationship between the container commodity item number.
2. Complete declaration
The enterprise must complete the complete declaration and handle customs clearance procedures such as payment of taxes within 14 days from the date of declaration of entry of the means of transport. After the tax is paid, the enterprise’s guarantee limit will be automatically restored. If the enterprise chooses not to pay taxes during the summary declaration, but it is confirmed that taxes need to be paid during the complete declaration, the enterprise shall handle it in accordance with the relevant regulations on the cancellation of import and export goods declaration forms.
When the goods declaration of processing trade and enterprises in special customs supervision areas and bonded supervision places uses the Golden Customs Phase II system to carry out “two-step declaration”, the first step of the summary declaration stage does not use the bonded verification list. The customs declaration form of the second step of the complete declaration stage follows the original model and is generated from the bonded verification list.